


Blood Purity in Harry Potter - Discrimination or a Vital Problem?

by SophieSwiftieSammy



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Blood purity, Gen, article
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-17
Updated: 2020-12-17
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:48:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28126392
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SophieSwiftieSammy/pseuds/SophieSwiftieSammy
Summary: Today I would like to share my thoughts on one of the most controversial subjects in the world of Harry Potter - blood purity. Is it really that important, or is it just a reason for fascism coming from Voldemort and Death Eaters?





	Blood Purity in Harry Potter - Discrimination or a Vital Problem?

**Author's Note:**

> This is my personal opinion. I don‘t mean to make anyone believe what I do, I‘m just sharing my thoughts that came to me after reading Harry Potter. I hope that you like it.

Today I would like to share my thoughts on one of the most controversial subjects in the world of Harry Potter - blood purity. Is it really that important, or is it just a reason for fascism coming from Voldemort and Death Eaters?

To tackle this problem, we need to first establish what blood purity actually is. It is one of the blood statuses you could have in the Wizarding World. In particular, two others are half-blood and muggleborn. So, this is about whether your family only consists of wizards or if there are Muggles among your ancestors as well. Not only parents, though - Harry is half-blood because his mother was muggleborn. Then, to truly be pureblood your family has to only marry other wizards. A good example are the Malfoys, who take good care of their blood status.

So, this is about discriminating other people, isn‘t it? The muggleborns are worse than us because they were born into Muggle families and that‘s why they‘re called Mudbloods and so on. Draco, for example, was raised in this type of family. But what about... Ron? It seems his family would not have any prejudices with how his father is affectionate towards Muggles. On the other hand though, is he really? His fascination is rather like an obsession, plus he is only really fascinated by muggle inventions. This is not what we call discrimination, but it‘s not equality either. What is more, the Weasleys are also pureblood (though blood traitors, but nonetheless) -  _ and _ they have the same attitude towards Muggles as the Malfoys! Ron told Harry that his mother had a cousin living in the Muggle world, but they didn‘t talk about him. How sweet. Or Hagrid in the very beginning says that Harry, poor thing, has to live with Muggles. Yes, he was trying to be affectionate, but what it sounds like is that Hagrid is also prejudiced. The Malfoys just show it more openly, but this sort of phrases makes me think all wizards (at least the purebloods or half-bloods) are.

Now, let‘s talk about Sirius Black. He was a member of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black, a pureblood family which was also quite famous. „Do you think I‘m proud to be related to people like that?“ - how rude. This is his family! He is as much an heir to the Blacks as Draco is to the Malfoys. But if Draco was taught from an early age how important it is and  _ responsibility _ for his family, Sirius just waved at it and escaped to the Potters. Kreacher once even said Sirius had broken his mother‘s heart. The moral of the story is, family means nothing if you don‘t like it? Is that right? Now, I understand Sirius must have had a hard time after befriending the Marauders and being sorted into Gryffindor, but... but he was quite close with Regulus before school. And Regulus is younger, which means he wasn‘t even at school yet when Sirius was sorted. They were very close before that... Maybe Sirius was the reason why their relationship went down the drain? And Regulus is his younger brother!

And what about the house on Grimmauld Place? What it looks like is a whole revolution. All these people just come in and start rampaging through the house! They just get rid of these relics that don‘t seem to mean anything to them. Sirius doesn‘t even care... To tell the truth, here he appears more as a spoiled brat than a good guy. With his own hands, he just destroys his family heritage. In this context, I‘m rather fond of Draco - at least he knows he is an heir and due to that has certain duties.

So where am I going with this? Well, this proves that there is a whole other side to being „nice“ about blood status. This is not only about you, this is about your family, your heritage. All these families - the Malfoys, the Blacks (the ones who are left), the Longbottoms - they are the last remnants of the true Wizarding World. The last true purebloods. It would make sense for them to cherish their status. After the Second Wizarding War, the two worlds will most likely mix, and all this heritage will be lost. There will be no owls, no floo - why have it if you have a telephone? Changes are irreversible, but not always good.

J. K. Rowling said that she wanted to write Dudley into the epilogue, but then decided otherwise - as in, no magical blood could overpower the genes of Uncle Vernon. So... blood is important, after all? If there is a chance that in a marriage wizard-Muggle the child will also be non-magical, I begin to understand why purebloodedness was so cherished. The wizards were afraid of just dying out. And what about the Statute of Secrecy? Yes, it protects the knowledge about magic, but I also believe that it was due to wizard-Muggle marriages. That is another reason why the wizards are hiding. Next. Squibs. They were considered unfit for living with the wizards, so they were sent to the muggle world. As in, squibs are not good enough for wizards but they are good enough for Muggles? How sweet. This can be described by one word -  _ hypocrites._ At least some of them are brave enough to admit it.

All in all, there are two sides to everything. On the one hand, discrimination is never good, but on the other hand it seems Rowling comes to the same conclusion, only the „good“ ones win. But in that sense, are they really that good?


End file.
